The US has military evacuated American government personnel from Sudan, Joe Biden said on Saturday.
The President confirmed that Washington is suspending operations at its embassy in the troubled country as fighting between rival commanders continues.
“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians,” Biden said in a statement.
“It’s unconscionable and it must stop.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “all US personnel and their dependents” have been safely evacuated and that the US will continue to assist Americans in Sudan in planning for their own safety.
All US government personnel and a small number of diplomatic personnel from other countries were evacuated in the operation, which removed fewer than 100 people, officials said.
Just over 100 US special operations forces were involved in the evacuation, entering and exiting Sudan without being fired upon by the warring factions on the ground.
Other foreign nationals began evacuating from a Red Sea port in Sudan on Saturday. Japan’s TBS news reported that the United Nations staff members including Japanese nationals and their families would be evacuated from Sudan as early as Sunday.
The bloody onslaught of urban warfare has trapped large numbers in the Sudanese capital, disabling the airport and rendering some roads impassable.
The UN and foreign states have urged rival military leaders to honour declared ceasefires that have mostly been ignored, and to open safe passage for fleeing civilians and the supply of badly needed aid.
Sudan’s sudden collapse into warfare dashed plans to restore civilian rule.
Fighting has brought an already impoverished country to the brink of humanitarian disaster and threatened a wider conflict that could draw in outside powers.
The conflict comes four years after the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
With the airport closed and skies unsafe, thousands of foreigners - including embassy staff, aid workers and students in Khartoum and elsewhere in Africa’s third largest country - have also been unable to get out.
Saudi Arabia has evacuated Gulf citizens from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 650 km (400 miles) from Khartoum. Jordan will use the same route for its nationals.
Western countries are expected to send planes for their citizens from Djibouti, though the Sudanese army has said airports in Khartoum and Darfur’s biggest city, Nyala, are problematic and it was not clear when that might be possible.
The army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the rival RSF, headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, have failed to observe ceasefires agreed almost daily since hostilities broke out on April 15.
Saturday’s fighting breached what was meant to be a three-day truce from Friday to allow citizens to reach safety and visit family during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Each side accused the other of not respecting the truce.
